President Aquino cites
PHL's demographic advantage in sustained economic growthBy Joann Santiago
MANILA, Oct. 14 (PNA) -- President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday
highlighted anew the advantage of having a young population vis-a-vis the
growth of the economy.

In an interview by Steve Forbes Jr., at the sidelines of the Forbes Global
CEO Conference in Solaire Hotel in Paranaque City, the chief executive said
programs to support the youth, starting from education to employment, have
been put in place to ensure its long-term effect on the country.

He stressed that the government wants a holistic approach in addressing the
issue of quality education and job mismatch, thus, the introduction of the
K-12 program, which increased from 10 to 12 years the basic education
system.

He said part of this is the inclusion of high school students, not just
elementary students, under the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program "to
keep the children in school."

"We graduated the first batch of those that we assisted last year, about
over 300,000, and amongst that group - between 13,000-14,000 - were honor
students who previously might not have been able to complete their
education," he said.

Aquino said they have also doubled the funding for skills training to be
able to meet the industry requirements in terms of skills and labor force.

He said they have also put up a web portal dubbed phil-job.net to have an
online list of available job opportunities in the country.

He disclosed that there was a month when job openings reached 200,000 but
applicants only reached 100,000.

Thus, the stronger tie-up with industry stakeholders to address the problem.

Aquino noted that in the vocational sector alone, job placement rate, which
the government defines as the time between graduation and finding a job and
in this case is placed at a six-month period after graduation, in the early
part of the current administration stood at about 28 percent.

He said programs to fix the education-employment gap has enabled the
government to increase the job placement rate to about 71.09 percent.

"And in certain industries where the industry really partnered very well
with us, took us up on the offer and cooperated very significantly,
placement rate is about 92 percent currently," he said.

One of the sectors that benefited from these measures is the business
process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is now among the major growth
drivers of the economy with revenues of a little over USD 19 billion to
date.

Aquino said the BPO sector directly employs about 1.3 million Filipinos to
date but also provides about 2.5 to three million indirect jobs.

He said the industry has resulted to growth not only of major economic
centers in the country but other smaller areas in the countryside "at far
greater rates than what was previously done by various other interventions."

"So it seems that the Philippines has identified a niche and that we have
the talent to be able to really populate and to really grow," he said.

With people's income rising so is consumption, which is also one of the
country's solid growth drivers, due also to remittances.

The Philippines has been posting higher growth rates in the last five years,
with average placed at about five percent from three percent in the past.

This made the country one of the leaders in the region in terms of domestic
output and resiliency.

With massive investment in social services and infrastructure along with
economic and governance reforms, Aquino is confident of the sustained growth
for the economy.

"So it becomes a virtuous cycle of us delivering on the promises, the
expectations rising, and then the optimism generating a more positive
activity within the economy - both in terms of the growth of the middle
class and also the confidence of those who have the economic clout to effect
changes in our country," he stressed.

Relatively, the President said investors' confidence on the domestic economy
has attracted foreign investments, thus, he continued to encourage
businessmen to tap opportunities in the country.

"So, I guess, in a sense there will be less risks, (there is) optimism,
hope, more actual figures that will say that it is really more fun not just
to visit the Philippines but to do business in the Philippines," he added.
(PNA)